Car seat outbursts

I don’t drive so I always sit at the back with the kids, C and I find the seating arrangement convenient so I can attend to whatever request V and LittleMiss needs (water, food, tissue, breastfeed – yes I’ve found a way to feed LittleMiss while both of us are buckled in the back).

We bought V his car seat when he was around 3 years old and he never had a meltdown while seated. LittleMiss however started fighting getting strapped on to her car seat, carrier and stroller at 11 months. Most of the time I give in and end up letting her sit in my lap. Why? She starts crying, screaming and vomiting that we end up not having a fun family day. Once she ended having a mild fever from her car seat outburst from Al Qusais to Dubai Mall.

Photos below taken while we were waiting for Dad C to come back.

As soon as I put her down this happens.

And when I still refuse to get her she vomits.

Her outbursts has cause me stress whenever we go out. I’ve tried offering her toys, singing favorite songs, and breastfeeding (this usually works) but as soon as she unlatch we’re back to crying.

Any advise? Should we change her car seat? Ignore her completely? (ignoring her is really hard for me)

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Hi, my name is Abigail a stay at home Mama of two LittleOnes and currently residing in Dubai, UAE since 2009.
This is my little space online where I share activities, places we've been, food we enjoy and snippets of our daily expat life.
‘Cuddles and Crumbs’ is a combination of the two main things I share on this blog: cuddles (family) and crumbs (food).

2 Comments

Must be so hard! I can’t ignore cries as well. Did you go out regularly and strap her in her car seat when she was small? We never have that problem with Ben as he is OK sitting in his car seat even when we drove from Dubai to Abu Dhabi!

Maybe it’s a girl thing? Pristine also hated the car seat and what helped was going out daily, even a few minutes per day with her strapped in the car.

Also, she might be crying because she can see you. I find that it happens when I am in the back seat too. When I am driving or in the passenger seat in front, there is no fussy reaction at the back.

What to do? I guess you can only experiment. I don’t think the problem is the car seat unless the material makes her feel very hot. She is just having separation anxiety from you – it will get better when she is a little older. Sometimes there are things that can only be solved by time. 😦

The name ‘Cuddles and Crumbs’ is a combination of the two main things I share on this blog: cuddles (family) and crumbs (food). The blog had a few name changes over the years – nappytales (2008) to mynappytales (2010) to cuddlesandcrumbs – I do think that now I have finally found the right name that truly reflects what I am passionate about.